January 6, 2010

"There has been a drastic fall in the incidence of new cases of drug-resistant HIV amongst patients taking antiretroviral therapy in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

"In the January 1st edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases investigators report that the incidence of newly detected resistance fell twelve-fold between 1996 and 2008.

"'There has been a drastic decrease in the incidence of new cases of HIV-1 drug resistance, despite increases in annual (and, especially, cumulative) exposure to antiretrovirals”, write the investigators. They also note “this has occurred alongside a steady increase in the proportion of patients achieving virological suppression.'"